


Listen

by zebraljb



Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: Declarations Of Love, M/M, Mutual Pining, Post-Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-27 22:31:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18199877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zebraljb/pseuds/zebraljb
Summary: Harry and Eggsy return after the events at Poppyland. They're exhausted and Harry doesn't like what he sees in the mirror.  Eggsy makes him think differently.Follows the events of TGC fairly closely, although Merlin does not die.BECAUSE MERLIN NEVER DIES.





	Listen

**Author's Note:**

> I was whining to wyvernwolf that I really wanted to write schmoopy Hartwin but needed a push. She gave me a list of one-sentence prompts. I chose, "You weren't supposed to hear that."

LISTEN

Harry can feel Eggsy’s eyes on him even as he sits with his own eyes closed. “What?” Harry snaps, not meaning to sound so irritated. But Eggsy’s been watching him carefully since they dumped Jack in a meat grinder. Since they ended a woman’s life with the injection of a needle. Since they returned to Statesman, said their goodbyes, and returned to Kingsman. Without Merlin. Merlin was currently in a separate jet, a medical jet, hurrying him to the best surgical hospital in Britain.

“Nothing.” Eggsy’s voice is meek. Quiet. Quieter than Harry’s ever heard him.

“I’m sorry, my boy.” Harry opens his eyes. Eggsy is sprawled out in a chair, legs askew, a glass of scotch in his hand. “I’m just…tired.”

“Me too.” Eggsy sips at his drink. “Killed lotsa men. Met Elton John. Shoved a man in a meat grinder. Sent a heartless bitch to hell. Watched my best mate almost get blown to pieces. Rough fuckin’ day.”

“You were amazing, Eggsy,” Harry says softly, and he sees the tightness around Eggsy’s mouth relax a bit. “Truly exemplary.”

“Yeah, well, had a good teacher, didn’t I?” Eggsy gives him a tiny smile.

“Merlin…”

“Ain’t talkin’ about Merlin. Talkin’ about you.”

“We never got to work together before this,” Harry points out. He reaches up to adjust the eyepatch and his hand shakes a bit.

Eggsy gets up without being asks and fixes Harry a martini. As he hands it over he says, “No, we never did. But I was able to watch footage of you in the archives…Merlin gave me access. Spent hours in there.”

“Oh.” Harry sips at the drink and nods his thanks. “Perfect, my boy.”

“Learned all yer moves…took fuckin’ notes.” Eggsy smiles at him.

Harry cannot help but smile back. Eggsy no longer looks like a wayward young man in snapback and jeans. He’s wearing a Kingsman suit, Kingsman glasses. He looks every inch the Kingsman knight and Harry couldn’t be prouder. But he’s still happy to hear a bit of the old Eggsy inch into Galahad’s speech now and then. It reminds Harry that the boy he so quickly fell in love with is in there somewhere, underneath it all. “I do not believe you learned ALL my moves,” Harry says casually. “Some things are only learned with experience.”

“Ya telling me I got a lot to learn, old man?”

“Yes,” Harry retorts, and Eggsy grins.

“Can’t wait.”

 

The return to HQ is bittersweet. It’s not really HQ, of course, not to them, although the support staff has done an incredible job preparing a new headquarters under such short notice. It’s also bittersweet to return to London and realize his home is gone. His antiques, his clothes, Mr. Pickle. Gone. Harry looks at Eggsy and realizes he’s lost everything as well. His home (Harry’s). His dog, one of his best friends.

“Welcome home, Galahad, and…Galahad.” Jerry, one of Merlin’s team, greets them in the hangar. It’s much smaller than the hangar in the original HQ, but everything had to be prepared as quickly as possible with minimal attention from the outside world. 

“Hey, Jerry.” Eggsy shakes Jerry’s hand. Harry shouldn’t really be surprised. Of course Eggsy would have made himself at home with the non-knight staff. That’s the person he is. “We’re both knackered, sorry we aren’t better company.”

“I understand, sir. The east wing has been prepared with rooms for the agents.” Jerry looks uneasily at Harry. “I’m afraid they’re not quite up to par with what you had before. I’m sorry…”

“All we need are showers and beds,” Harry assures him. “Nothing fancy.”

“I’ll second that. Maybe some clothes?” Eggsy looks down at the suit he’s been wearing for two days.

“We have a small wardrobe prepared for every agent…still had your sizes on file. I’ll make sure one of the boys gets clothes up to you ASAP.” Jerry pulls out his phone and checks it. “Uh, Galahad…” He looks confused, then motions to Harry. “You are in room seven, and…”

“Just call me Eggsy, bruv, it’s fine, I promise,” Eggsy says.

“All right…Eggsy. You’re in room nine.”

“Practically roommates,” Eggsy says to Harry.

Harry thanks Jerry and they head upstairs. “I’m sure I am the last person you wish to room with,” he says to Eggsy.

“Doubt it. We had a pretty nice time that night when I was a recruit.” The words are said casually but Eggsy watches Harry carefully.

That night. The best and worst twenty-four hours of Harry’s life. Having Eggsy so close, eating with him, drinking with him. Feeling the continuous pull towards Eggsy, wanting to touch his hair, brush his hand over Eggsy’s cheek, kiss the pink lips. And Eggsy had seemed interested, had seemed drawn to Harry as well.

“Well, now we are on equal footing, aren’t we?” Harry steps out of the lift and walks down the corridor. “Rooms nine and seven. Here we are.”

“Haz,” Eggsy says quietly. “Ain’t never gonna be yer equal.”

“Eggsy,” Harry says in surprise.

“Sweet dreams,” Eggsy says, and quickly darts into his room.

Harry sighs and enters his own room. HQ was once a large manor house, and apparently rooms nine and seven were once a bedroom with adjoining parlor, a small door connecting one room to the other. Harry realizes his room is probably bigger than Eggsy’s and frowns; he doesn’t need to be treated as something better than Eggsy just because he’s an ancient dinosaur.

He pokes around a bit and finds a dressing gown in the wardrobe. It’s better than nothing, he decides, and carefully undresses. He steps into the shower and welcomes the hot water on his skin. He stands under its spray for what seems like hours, trying to wash the day from his body. Harry’s tired, he’s anxious, he’s on edge. Not because of what they’d done, although the thought of possibly losing Merlin forever is something he will have to deal with eventually. He simply doesn’t like the idea of not knowing what’s coming next. He has a tiny feeling that they will expect him to step in as Arthur; he’s the most experienced knight left. He allows himself to imagine life behind a desk and not in the field, and he doesn’t like it. He also doesn’t like the idea of sending Eggsy off to possible death on a regular basis.

Harry finally pulls himself out of the shower, dries off, and pulls on the dressing gown and a pair of pants. He stands in front of the mirror, looking at his reflection and frowning. Lines of silver are more prevalent in his dark hair. New wrinkles seem to have appeared around his good eye, as well as at the corners of his mouth. His neck reminds him of a turkey’s, and even his hands look old. He leans forward and peers at the remains of his other eye. The skin is tight and rough, and his hand trembles as he reaches up to touch it. He thinks of Eggsy, beautiful golden Eggsy with his lean body and tight arse and soft skin. “I’m a monster,” he says out loud. “An ancient hideous broken thing. Why did you bring me back? Why didn’t you leave me there…let me live the rest of my life in the fantasy my mind built?”

“Because I couldn’t handle a life without you in it.”

Harry whirls around, forgetting that he’s standing there in front of Eggsy without his eyepatch. “You weren’t supposed to hear that.”

“Obviously.” Eggsy leans in the doorway in a pair of trakkies and a vest. “Bloke brought up our clothes. You didn’t answer your door so he gave me yours. Came through the connector.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “A monster. Ancient. Hideous. Broken.”

“Obviously.” Harry motions to his face and turns back to the mirror. But instead of looking he just rests his hands on the sink and looks down.

“A phoenix rising from the ashes,” Eggsy says softly. Harry looks up in surprise. “Not ancient…mature. Not hideous, brave an’ strong an’ fuckin’ incredible. Not broken.” Eggsy walks over to stand close to him. Very close. He reaches up and touches the wrinkled skin around Harry’s eye. “Gorgeous.”

“Please do not patronize me, Eggsy, in the hopes of making me feel better. It doesn’t work,” Harry says bitterly.

“Would never do that to you.” Eggsy bites his bottom lip and takes Harry’s face in both his hands. “Thought you were fucking gorgeous the moment I laid eyes on you outside the station. Tall, handsome, arrogant, so fucking beautiful in your bespoke suit. Even hearing you say my name sent shivers down my spine. Watching you take out Dean’s mutts. Every time I saw you ya got more beautiful.”

“Eggsy,” Harry whispers.

“No. You listen.” Eggsy’s hands grow tighter on his face. “That night with you at the house? It was incredible, but I was so fuckin’ petrified…knew you’d see right through me, see the huge torch I was carrying for you.” Eggsy’s thumbs stroke Harry’s face. “And then we argued, said such horrible things. And then…then you were gone.” Eggsy swallows hard.

“My darling boy,” Harry says without thinking, his hands moving to rest on Eggsy’s waist. He nervously plucks at the fabric of Eggsy’s vest but Eggsy doesn’t seem to mind.

“Everything’s a blur after that…the time without you. God, Harry, when Merlin’s back, ask him for the video footage of your house. I walked around like a fucking zombie. I’d sit in your office, or even…” Eggsy shakes his head. “One night I slept in your damn closet cuz it smelled like you.”

“Eggsy,” Harry says in astonishment. “I had no clue…I never thought you…”

“Well, I did. I do,” he insists. “Fighting beside you was the proudest moment of my life. Not only because you were there, next to me, and we were bloody brilliant, but…I hoped you’d look at me and see that I lived up to the potential ya always saw in me. You’d look at me and think I was worthy of you.”

“You are not worthy of me,” Harry says and Eggsy’s face falls. “You are ten times better than I. A thousand times better.” Something sparks in Eggsy’s eyes. “I have…watched you…for a long time. And not as the knight who suggested you to Kingsman. As something more. As someone hungry for just a glimpse of you, someone thirsting to be in your presence for even a second.”

“Harry,” Eggsy whispers.

“You deserve so much more,” Harry murmurs. He takes Eggsy’s hands from his face and kisses the inside of each wrist. “I am old man. I’m…” He motions to his eye.

“Don’t care,” Eggsy say stubbornly. “Don’t matter if you’re twenty-five or fifty-five, Harry. You’re handsome and brilliant and brave and ya got this great snarky sense of humor and I love when ya put Merlin in his place. I love when ya put me in MY place.” Eggsy takes Harry’s hands and puts them back on his waist. He then puts his arms around Harry. “Don’t want ‘so much more,’ Harry. I want you. Always have.” He stands on tiptoe and kisses Harry.

At first Harry isn’t sure what to do. He’s kissed hundreds of men and women, primarily on the job, so it’s not like this is new. But it’s the first time in ages that he’s actually wanted to kiss the person kissing him. Eggsy pulls back and looks at him, frowning. “My apologies,” Harry says. He tightens his grip on Eggsy’s waist and leans down to meet Eggsy’s lips with his own. He feels Eggsy grin against him.

Eggsy kisses just as Harry had dreamt. Strong yet tender, passionate yet loving. He presses his body to Harry’s, allowing himself to rut against him a bit before pulling away. “YES, Harry,” he says breathlessly.

“I still think you’re making a mistake.”

“All right…maybe you aren’t as brilliant as I originally thought.” Eggsy takes him by the hand and leads him out of the loo.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking you to bed,” Eggsy says and Harry stops walking.

“My dear boy, I don’t think…” Harry blushes. He is absolutely exhausted, physically and mentally, and he’s still trying to wrap his brain around this new turn of events. He knows that even if he prayed to every god he could think of, his body would probably betray him.

“Not like that,” Eggsy promises. “Although that’s happening soon. Been having naughty dreams about you forever, Haz.”

“Oh really?” Harry likes the sound of that.

“Really. But tonight we are both fucking knackered. We’re gonna strip down to our pants, climb into that bed and go to sleep.” Eggsy pulls off his vest and Harry can only gape at him.

“To-together?”

“Yes. Unless you’re not amenable to that.” The trakkies go next and suddenly Eggsy Unwin is standing in front of him clad only in a pair of bright red pants.

“I’m…very amenable.”

“Well, come on, then.” Eggsy throws the covers back and climbs into bed.

Harry looks down at his body in dismay. “Perhaps they’ve given me pajamas.”

“Of COURSE they have, but you ain’t wearing them. Quit worrying about what I’m gonna think about yer body and get in here.” Eggsy pats the bed. Harry slowly opens the dressing gown, removes it, and hangs it up.

“You are quite bossy,” Harry comments, trying to ignore the fact that he is practically naked in front of the one person he’s wanted to be naked with for ages now.

“I’ve learned it’s the best way ta deal with you when you’re acting stupid,” Eggsy says. “Jesus, those legs,” he says admiringly. “Go on for days, don’t they?”

“If you say so,” Harry says, but he likes the way Eggsy stares at him. He climbs into bed next to Eggsy and pulls up the covers. “Now what?”

“Now this.” Eggsy maneuvers Harry’s arms and legs until he has him where he apparently wants him. Eggsy’s head on Harry’s chest, one of Harry’s arms around him. One of Eggsy’s legs shoved between Harry’s. “All right?”

“Quite,” Harry whispers. He feels Eggsy’s eyelashes flutter against his skin. “Are you sure about this?”

“Absolutely. And you will be too, when yer not so tired and you realize we was meant to be.” Eggsy squeezes him tight and kisses his chest. “Go to sleep and quit thinking so much. And don’t let me go.”

“Never,” Harry promises.

 

Harry slowly wakens the next morning and thinks it must have been a dream. He no longer has Eggsy pressed to his chest, and the warmth of Eggsy’s body draped over him is gone. But Harry then realizes that they’ve moved in the night. Eggsy is on his side with Harry spooned up behind him, Harry’s leg between Eggsy’s this time. One of his arms is wrapped around Eggsy and Eggsy has Harry’s hand tucked up under his chin. Harry wiggles his fingers a bit and Eggsy moans, a glorious sound. He wiggles a bit, pressing himself back against Harry’s body.

“Good morning, my boy,” Harry whispers.

“Mmm.” Eggsy rolls over, burrowing himself against Harry. “Ya didn’t let me go.”

“Never,” Harry whispers, kissing the top of Eggsy’s head.


End file.
